Vertigo was recently considered the best movie ever by the list of the british magazine Sight and Sound. It is obviously a list of consensus, more than a list of favourite movies. Vertigo was the most mentioned movie by all the voters of the list. Thanks to that (and gladly for us) the movie is now in the portuguese theaters again.
Hitchcock is a wonderful director, author of a very particular kind of movies, easily recognizable by the public. Vertigo stands from most of his movies, not for the lack of mistery, but by the approach to the mistery and the way it is solved.
It's a dark movie, with the amazing performances of James Stewart (Hitchcock's fetish actor) and Kim Novak.
Novak has an outstanding performance, very contained, radiating the discomfort of the character in a gentle way. Stewart has a decadent heroe, diminished by his limitation and dropped by his obsession, maintains the high quality of his work.
I saw this movie many years ago and curiously I didn't remember the ending. As I saw it once again I though to myself how could that be, how come I didn't remember those last moments, since it is a final scene hard to forget. I probably erased it from my mind because of it's macabre outcome.
I recongnize the geniality of the movie. Hitchcock has here a true masterpiece. I surrender to Novak's charms and to Stewart's bitterness, but I don't intend to see it soon again. It's a movie hard to digest, although I couldn't imagine a better ending than the one the Master created which seals this vertiginous movie with a powerful closing.
